Monkey D Sakazuki
by Spooky Skull Face
Summary: You've heard this before, a young pirate wishing to be Pirate King. A cruel Admiral who follows Absolute Justice. What happens when their places in the story switch? Their personalities intact? This is the story of Monkey D. Sakazuki, an aspiring pirate whose road to Raftel will leave a bloody and fiery wake.
1. Violence Dawn

**Note: Oda once said that if Akainu became a protagonist he'd find One Piece in a year. That answer is the inspiration for this fic.**

* * *

The pirates stared at the strange boy that had found himself within the sake barrel. He was intimidatingly tall, with a nasty scowl on his face and a beige cap that covered his eyes. They were frozen in fear of the mysterious invader.

"Who the hell are you guys?" He asked gruffly, in a casual tone that shocked them out of their stupor

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" The three pirates responded back with righteous anger.

"HOW DID A BIG GUY LIKE YOU EVEN FIT IN THERE?" One pirate with a striped cap questioned further at the bored looking young man.

Before he answered a massive club tore into the cabin they were in, sending the barreled boy away.

* * *

"A-Are you alright?" The barrel boy got up, dusting away the saw dust and splinters covering his bulky frame that was covered by an unbuttoned red jacket.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked once more, with a threatening impatience.

"I-I'm Coby! I'm a caretaker for 'Iron Bludgeon' Alvida's crew." Coby was visibly nervous as he noticed the guy's shadow covering him entirely.

"Nice to meet you Coby-kun. I'm Sakazuki. Do you have a boat to spare?" Coby sweat dropped at how he suddenly changed the direction of this conversation.

"No?"

"Shame, then I suppose I'm just wasting my time here." Coby took some time to register the fleeting figure of Sakazuki.

"W-WAIT! W-WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" He yelled after him frantically.

He stopped, acknowledging his question as if it was the most idiotic thing he had ever heard.

"I'm finding a boat so I can become the Pirate King." Coby's jaw dropped at that answer.

"WHAT!?" He screamed in a pitch that could shatter glass.

"I want to find One Piece and become the Pirate King." The tall youth reiterated, seemingly oblivious to Coby's dumbfounded expression.

"W-Why?" Sakazuki tilted his head sideways.

"It's my absolute ambition, one that only death can deter me from." Coby's eyes widened at how confident and resolute he was.

"T-That's awesome." He said starstruck.

"Why are you crying?" He said with diastase as he noticed the tears welling comically in Coby's eyes.

"I-I have an ambition too! T-To become a marine!" He shouted back.

"Why are you shouting? I'm right next to you. Also that mean's I'd have to kill you if you get in the away of my ambition." The scowling youth didn't seem impressed by his resolve.

"I-I understand Sakazuki-san, b-but it's my ambition still!" He slobbered over his arm, wiping away the snot and mucus over his face.

Sakazuki frowned in disgust.

"Then become one you idiot." Coby's eyes widened in fear.

"B-But Alvida…" A great big fist smashed his head into the ground.

"If some weakling makes you question your ambition than let me kill you right here right now and end your misery." Coby trembled as he got back to his feet, his glasses shattered and blood running down his nose. He was taken back by how brutal Sakazuki-san was, but he was right in a way.

"I-I can do it! I can become a marine!" All the fear he had evaporated as his bloodshot eyes stared into Sakazuki.

"OH YOU CAN?" A sudden bellow caught them off-guard as a rotund woman destroyed Sakazuki's ramshackle boat.

Sakazuki mildly stared at her while Coby shook in fear.

Alvida and her pirates all grinned audaciously as they had the two surrounded. The pirates from earlier were licking their lips in anticipation for their beat down.

"Who's the ugly fatso?" He asked Coby, much to the horror of the surrounding pirates. Alvida scowled, her eyes hidden by the brim of her hat.

Coby panicked.

"Sakazuki-san repeat after me! She is- "He stopped midway as he remembered Sakazuki's words about ambition.

'No! It's time to follow your ambitions!' He told himself.

"The ugliest bitch!" He held into Sakazuki's arm. The scowling man grinned at the insult.

"YOU BRAT!" Coby grabbed his face in mind numbing fear as the iron bludgeon came down aiming for his head.

'Too late to regret now!' Repeated itself in Coby's head.

"BOTH OF YOU NEED TO DIE!"

He was pushed back as the club embedded itself into Sakazuki's head.

Everyone stared in astonishment as the club disappeared and melted. Alvida jumped back, yelling madly at her burning hands.

Standing there stoically was Sakazuki, the top of his head gone, dripping magma falling into the ground and melting everything it touched.

"That won't work on me." He said with no emotion, as Alvida and her crew turned snow pale.

"I'm a magma man." His mutilated head reformed, searing hot lava filling the empty space; as it cooled it left behind a perfectly intact face.

"Y-You're a monster!" Alvida croaked out, completely out of her mind afraid.

"Magu…" The surrounding temperature increased tremendously as Sakazuki enveloped his arm in scorching molten rock.

"Magu no…" Several of Alvida's crewmembers fled immediately in a maddened rout. Avida was already ahead all of them for fear was an effective propellant for even the fattest of people.

"PISTOL" Sakazuki pulled back his arm, then punched.

A great explosive wave crashed into them, annihilating everything in its path.

Coby stood there, the flames of fiery destruction dancing on his glasses, his jaws unhinged as he witnessed the apocalypse.

* * *

"A-Are they alive?" Coby nervously asked as he rowed them both away from the burning island.

"Who knows? Who cares?" Coby felt a chill in his spine at how callous Sakazuki answered back.

"T-That was cruel Sakazuki-san…" Sakazuki stared at him, Coby instantly regretted saying those words.

"You wanted to leave them right? Isn't this want you wanted?" Coby looked down on the boat floor.

"Not like that…" Sakazuki slapped the top of his head.

"Are you an idiot? This is what the life of a marine is going to be like. You need to get used to this." He berated the pink haired boy for his naivety.

"Is this what it'll be like on the Grand Line too?" Sakazuki nodded silently.

"This is why I need a strong crew, thankfully the place we're headed to has someone I think might be willing to join." Coby nodded quietly.

"Roronoa Zoro?" Sakazuki just nodded.

Coby oared on silently.

They said the Pirate Hunter was a monster.

Looking at Sakazuki, he couldn't help but think.

It took a monster to find other monsters.


	2. Pirate Hunter

**Note: Akainu/Sakazuki isn't going to be as strong as he is in canon, he's only 17 and doesn't know anything about haki. Though with his devil fruit and his insane durability it'll be obvious he'll chew through most of the early villains until he meets Smoker.**

* * *

Coby just stared in awe at how much food Sakazuki was consuming, he had already finished his seventh plate of meat. He looked so calm, no one could have known just how big of an appetite he had by looking at how neatly he ate.

"Sakazuki-kun… if you don't stop now I'll end up a beggar." Coby said tearfully as he calculated the berries he was burning through feeding this monster.

It took him several seconds to finish his seventh meal, taking some napkins and wiping the grime off his mouth.

"A growing boy needs his nutrition." Coby felt a bead of sweat falling down his forehead, he looked older than most men in their forties.

"I hope for your sake that Zoro doesn't eat as much." At the mention of the Pirate Hunter's name the entire patronage and staff of the restaurant they were eating in freaked out.

Coby and Sakazuki observed the thrown up furniture and the nervous depositions of everyone else.

"Looks like the Pirate Hunter has left quite an impression." Sakazuki said slightly impressed by how much dread they showed in reaction to his name.

"Looks like we can't say the name Zoro" Coby whispered as if such an obvious thing was not made apparent to him.

"Anyway." Coby quickly changed tune.

"I've read a notice on the street saying the commander of the nearby Marine base is a Lieutenant Morgan." Once more everyone else in the room freaked out immensely as Coby uttered another name.

It was interesting to Sakazuki that a marine would have elicited such a response.

* * *

"People around here seem to overreact a lot." Sakazuki wondered aloud as they walked down the street of the town.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Coby contributed to the magma man's thoughts.

"I mean it makes sense for people to be scared hearing Roronoa Zoro's name since he can escape anytime, but why would they be afraid of a marine lieutenant's name?" Coby was asking the right questions and Sakazuki had a sinking suspicion why that was the case.

* * *

"I've never seen anything so ugly." Coby didn't seem to be fazed by his description of the Marine Base, he had other things stuck in his mind.

"Go on." Sakazuki growled out, impatient with the pink haired boy's hesitance

"I-I'm just thinking. That incident at the restaurant rattled my nerves." Sakazuki didn't pay much heed to Coby, walking casually towards a wall next to the gates.

Instead of crashing into it as would normally be the case, Sakazuki just melted right through it.

Coby blinked several times, his mind still comprehending what just happened.

"HEY WAIT UP!" Coby shouted out, Sakazuki would be getting them both into trouble at this rate.

He climbed up the walls, hanging onto the top as he witnessed what was happening before him.

It was terrifying, both of their dark auras seemed to clash with one another. Sakazuki stood tall, staring down at the man bounded to the wooden pole.

Sakazuki in his red jacket, cargo pants and sneakers didn't seem the intimidating figure while Roronoa Zoro wearing his linen shirt and a black bandanna looked weird.

Yet the choking atmosphere that they gave out made Coby's nether regions quiver in anxiety.

"Hey you, I've been tied up for nine days and I'm exhausted. Would you mind untying me?" Roronoa Zoro's voice was almost as deep as Sakazuki's.

"What do I get in return?" Sakazuki didn't beat around the bush.

"I can hunt down pirates for you, give you the reward money." He flashed him a deadly grin.

Before Sakazuki was able to answer Coby noticed by his side a propped up ladder. A little girl then climbed up, shushing him to be quiet.

She jumped down and scurried towards the two frightening men, undaunted by their sheer killing instinct.

"Onii-chan I made you some rice balls! You haven't eaten in a while haven't you?" She cheerfully said.

"I'm not hungry." He dully said.

"B-But these are the first rice balls I've made." She insisted.

"Go away or I'll kill you." He bluntly continued.

"What's going on here?" Another actor had entered the stage, this one wearing a baggy suit and a hairstyle that screamed victim, flanked by two men wearing those cute little uniforms the rank and file marines wear.

None of them impressed Sakazuki in any way.

"Well if it isn't the marine lieutenant's bastard son." Zoro said under his teeth.

"Don't get cocky." Helmoppo said. His eyes drifting away from the tiny terrified girl to the larger Sakazuki.

"Who the hell are you and why are you trespassing on a marine base?" Sakazuki lazily turned his head towards him, as if he didn't want to acknowledge his existence for more than a single second. It was very effective in pissing Helmoppo off.

"I'm recruiting Roronoa Zoro into my crew." Coby's jaw dropped and hit the top of the wall. He couldn't believe Sakazuki would just say that aloud.

Every eye on the courtyard just stared, the revelation of Sakazuki's profession seemed to change the atmosphere very quickly.

"Y-You're a pirate!?" Helmoppo's earlier sleazy bravado evaporated, he shuffled backwards behind the two marines guarding him. The two men slightly perspiring as they realized they were being used as meat shields.

"I-If you don't leave I'll call every marine here and they'll have your head! My dad isn't a kind man! He'd make your execution painful!" He demanded, well whined if it were to be accurate.

Sakazuki's response was to use his pinky finger to clean his right ear.

"F-Fine! G-Go get him boys!" He pushed the two marines forward.

They didn't seem to be especially brave, Sakazuki towered both of them, and his eyes told them he was capable of doing many terrible and painful things.

One of them however found his backbone.

He yelled out a cry and charged.

Sakazuki raised his hand and pointed his index finger at him.

"Magu Magu no…" Sakazuki waited for a second longer so the marine would be dead center.

"Bullet." A large spherical projectile composed of magma launched from Sakazuki's finger. It bore itself into the Marine's head like its namesake, and passed right through.

The marine stood for some time, the large burning hole of burning flesh that once held parts of his brain didn't seem to deter him. Until he crumbled like a puppet without string.

Helmoppo screamed like a little girl, in fact his scream was more high-pitched than the actual little girl who dropped the rice ball and fell on her butt in utter fright.

The other marine had fled immediately as he took a single sight on the corpse that was his friend. Helmoppo realizing he was alone left just as quickly.

All those were left were Zoro and the little girl.

Sakazuki shifted his eyes towards her. She quivered even when exposed to the scalding heat Sakazuki emanated. Their eyes locked for only a second before she fainted.

Zoro took this all with a passive interest.

"You're a pirate?" He said ignoring the passed out girl by his side.

"Yes and I want you to become one too." Sakazuki was oddly calm for a man who just murdered a marine in a marine base.

Coby on the other hand felt only sick.

He came here to be a marine.

A marine like the one Sakazuki has killed without battling an eye lash.

Forgot about second thoughts, he was having third and fourth thoughts.

"I'll never join you!" Zoro gave him an audacious grin.

"Oh? You're electing to starve to death instead?" Sakazuki asked dangerously.

"Maybe, you've screwed up my plans negotiating with the bastard kid since you've killed a marine in their base. I'm not going to let a bastard like you mess up my dreams just because you want me to be a pirate." Coby felt his bladder tickle.

Was Roronoa Zoro mad? He just killed someone in front of him!

"How do you plan on escaping then? Sakazuki asked.

"Well if I had my katana maybe I could cut the ropes." Sakazuki brought the rim of his cap down.

"If I give you your katana would you reconsider joining my crew?" Zoro bared his teeth.

"That's playing dirty!" He growled.

"Would you?" Zoro stayed quiet for a time.

"Fine, but get the girl out of her, and feed me her rice ball. Tell her that 'it was delicious' also don't show your ugly face or else she'll pass out again." Sakazuki nodded.

"Fine. Coby!" Coby ducked under the walls, hoping Sakazuki would ignore him.

"Come here and take this little girl away from here before the bloodbath starts!" Sakazuki was dirty, using his conscience against him.

"Do you plan in sneaking into the base?" Sakazuki turned towards him.

All he answered with was a cruel smile.


	3. Two Monsters

His eyes were watering as the smoke particles irritated them, his lungs were collapsing as ash and soot seeped into his bloodstream. He couldn't remember just what had happened that made him buckle in such pain.

He held his axe-arm in front of him, waving his good hand in a desperate attempt to wave away the thick darkness enveloping his entirety.

All around him he heard the cries and gagging of his marines, the useless fools who were supposed to be raising up his glorious statue.

But then something appeared that blotted the sun. It looked like a meteor falling from the heavens, it landed atop the roof and almost destroyed it entirely.

Axe-hand Morgan was in quiet panic.

What had just happened?

* * *

Helmoppo sobbed quietly, his bowels emptying themselves as he guided the monster behind him into his room.

He felt sore all over, that's what happened when one falls of a hole in the roof; but luckily for him something broke his fall.

The psychopath who killed that marine in front of him.

"Is this where the swords are?" Helmoppo could only weakly shake his head, he was too afraid to do anything else.

He screamed as he felt a massive force scantly miss his head and destroy the wall next to the door. Sakazuki casually strolled inside, without a care for the world.

Utterly convinced nothing could hurt him.

That moment as he grabbed Zoro's swords and examine them with a dispassionate eye did Helmoppo experience one of the soberest thoughts that have graced his dense head.

This was what power looked like.

Nothing like the ostentatious bragging that his father showed. This was true and absolute power. It was like being in the middle of a powerful typhoon, without any chance of controlling your own fate.

This was what he felt when this crazy pirate was around him.

It terrified and comforted him. That in the end it didn't matter if he was a marine lieutenant's son, he was liable to die like any other man.

He was nothing special.

* * *

"YOU THERE! ARE YOU CONNECTED TO THE ATTACK ON OUR BASE!" A large crowd of nervous marines with muskets surrounded Coby and Zoro. The pinkette had managed to safely take the girl away from here, only to be caught midway untying Zoro's bonds.

"Careful where your pointing those! You might want to point them behind you!" The marine men started to notice the pillowing pillar of smoke from the top of their base. They were seriously considering accepting Zoro's advice.

Then a large explosion shattered the tension. The front door of the base was blow apart like nothing, striding forth from the debris was a demonic looking figure. It started walking towards them slowly. Each step being answered with more and more guns pointing towards it until they ignored Coby and Zoro all together.

"Stop right there!" One of the marines demanded of Sakazuki, one hand holding all three swords.

"I don't have time for you fools." Sakazuki raised his right leg

"Coby and Pirate Hunter, get down." Coby immediately complied, untying the last of the knots and shoving Zoro downwards much to the greenettes surprise.

Coby learned listening to Sakazuki was the safest course of action, especially if it was a threat.

Sakazuki's right leg was slowly getting enveloped in an overflowing mass of magma.

"FIRE!" The marines realized what was happening and fired all at once, but none of the bullets hit. They passed through him like they were nothing.

"WHAT KIND OF HUMAN IS HE?!" Coby blinked at Zoro as he joined in the chorus of people who asked that question. Did it take him that long to realize Sakazuki-san was not a normal person?

"I ate the Magu Magu no mi. Your attacks won't do anything." Sakazuki stated with no hint of emotion.

"M-Monster." One of the marines said.

"Magu Magu no….." Sakazuki whipped his leg backwards, ready to unleash his attack.

Every marine tried to run, but they couldn't run far enough.

"Shotgun!" Sakazuki kicked in a horizontal arc, globs of magma were hurled from his leg at a bullet like velocity, spreading out over a 45-degree angle. Each around the size of a child's head. One of the globs struck a marine in the back, exploding and obliterating him into nothing. One detonated just between two marines, the explosive radius no doubt enveloping them as well. A field of gigantic explosions erupted in front Sakazuki's cone of vision like a fireworks display. By the time it was over there was no signs of the marines.

It was like they never existed.

The attack was so powerful it even claimed several houses that were in front of Sakazuki's arc. A destructive move that did not care for collateral damage.

Coby stood up silently, his jaw dropping at the level of callous destruction.

This was going too far.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!" Coby screamed in frightened tears.

"WHAT SORT OF MONSTER ARE YOU!?" He screamed out his lungs, his lofty view of Sakazuki shattered.

This was something he didn't expect.

Sakazuki started walking towards him, slowly but with purpose. Each step making Coby quiver backwards slightly until Sakazuki loomed over him like a jungle predator.

He too one long look before kicking him in the gut, leaving a painful looking burn scar on his abdomen. The hit instantly knocking Coby out.

"I have to agree, you're too bloodthirsty even for me." Zoro said as he looked at Coby's still form.

"It's for his own good, he can't be a marine if they think I'm associated with him." By 'they' Sakazuki was referring to the new batch of marines from the banged up base who were trying to make sense of what was happening.

At the forefront was Lieutenant Morgan, the men surrounding him clearly wondering if they should be terrified of their commander or Sakazuki.

"You're a devil fruit user." Morgan looked slightly nervous even with his brave face.

"And to make it worse you're a logia." The lieutenant was clearly aware of just how utterly hopeless a fight with Sakazuki was.

Sakazuki examined him for only a second, before returning Zoro his swords.

"I don't care if you kill them or not. I want to see what you're capable of." Sakazuki simply stated.

Zoro stared at his blades for a while before taking them.

He held two of them in each hand, the third was lodged in his mouth.

"I don't give a damn what sort of crazy you are." Zoro said as he faced the marines and Morgan.

"But let me you show you that this crazy will become the world's greatest swordsman." He declared triumphantly as he charged into them.


	4. Determination

"Already you're defying me?" Sakazuki said dangerously as magma flowed from his hands, the target of his rage being directed at a lone swordsman wielding three swords. He stood defiantly, right down the avenue of the main road that ran past Shell Town.

He was drenched in blood and sweat, his eyes burning even with his cold look.

Standing just behind him was the entire civilian populace of Shell Town. Each brandishing a makeshift weapon, terrified at the display of power shown before them. They had no idea what was going to happen to them. The men, the women and even the children were all ready to fight. Or that's what they told themselves anyway.

Several of the marines who were left were also present, their guns and swords at hand. Even after seeing the terror that was Sakazuki they had chosen to remain and fight.

After all, there was to be no quarter given with a man like Sakazuki. There was no one in the entire East Blue who could stop him. There was no point in running away.

Do or die.

Zoro just stared resolutely at the giant human sized mass of magma in front of him, unsure of his chances of successfully even landing a hit on him never mind wounding him slightly.

* * *

 **-1 hour ago-**

He grunted as half a dozen blades fell on top of him, the strength of six men did not seem to faze him, and it wasn't because of his own freakish strength.

These marines did not have the fight in them, he saw their terrified faces. Each had one eye on their front and their back.

It did not surprise him.

Every single one of them were stuck between a rock and a hard place, behind them was a vicious and cruel commander who cared for nothing but himself. Who would be willing to kill those who disobeyed his unreasonable orders.

Ahead of them was the apocalypse in human form, an entity whose power surpassed anything that they had ever since. A force of nature who dismantled their base simply by landing on it.

Both ways guaranteed death and misery.

Was it any wonder that they were so pitiful in their attacks?

Zoro fell them all in one stroke as he pushed on his blades.

The sheer force had pushed all of them off of him. Zoro was confident it wasn't a strong enough shove to knock them unconscious, so either they were weaker than he thought or they were simply acting.

"Useless!" Lieutenant Morgan raised his axe hand in anger, visible sweat dripping down his brow. He waved his axe hand, looking at the remaining marines by his side.

All of them just stared frozen.

"Do you want me to kill you?" He glowered at their cowardice, uncaring that they would be able to do nothing.

Zoro had seen enough.

He charged towards the high-ranking marine. A large grin on his face.

If he defeated him in a one on one fight then maybe this slaughter could be stopped.

* * *

Coby awoke to agonizing distress. He placed his hands on his aching abdomen, almost incapable of breathing properly. He was surprised.

How was he still alive?

He looked upwards, and the first thing he saw once his blurry vision cleared was a tense fight between Lieutenant Morgan and Roronoa Zoro.

He then noticed someone by his side, hiding behind the cross that the Pirate Hunter was once lashed to.

It was Helmoppo.

"It's impossible." He whispered fervently, his entire body encased in soot. He was scared out of his mind.

Coby was a bit disturbed by how terrified he looked.

"How can they beat a monster like him?" He continued in his whispered ramblings.

Coby couldn't help but agree, Sakazuki was clearly someone who wasn't normal. He wasn't meant for these oceans. He'd figure that if had been dropped directly on the other side of the Grand Line there'd still be a few people who'd be able to keep up with him.

It was their misfortune that he decided to start in the East Blue.

* * *

And as fast as it started it ended. Lieutenant Morgan fell amidst a spray of blood. Zoro stood defiant, his two blades held over the blade that was lodged in his mouth. Helmoppo's father laid still on the ground unconscious.

Soon after Zoro followed him, as he collapsed in a manner far more gracefully than his defeated foe.

All the while, Sakazuki surveyed the battle from the background.

No emotion, no hint of registration. All he gave was an ambivalent eye.

He then started walking towards the scene of this battle's climax, not caring of the marines who were quickly scrambling away from the fight. They had no reason to stay after their commanding officer had been knocked out of commission.

He looked downwards as Zoro's unmoving form, then shifted his gaze towards Lieutenant Morgan's.

He was still alive.

Coby stared in horror, Helmoppo in despair.

Sakazuki's foot was hovering over Lieutenant's Morgan's chest. Like an executioner's blade.

"STOP!" Helmoppo ran in a maddened dash towards Sakazuki, no matter the abuses of his father. Letting him die right in front of him was something he just couldn't stand to witness.

He couldn't reach in time.

A sickening crunch rang across the deserted courtyard. Sakazuki did not use his devil fruit powers, all he did was use his freakish strength.

Coby's mouth gaped, bile forming in his throat.

Helmoppo fell to his knees, his hands on his head as he witnessed the death of his father.

Morgan managed to regain consciousness only to be greeted with agonizing pain. His eyes momentarily looking at the remains of his stomach staining Sakazuki's shoe.

Sakazuki stomped again once more, this one proved to finally end Morgan's misery.

He was already dead by the third stomp; this was not enough in Sakazuki's eyes.

He moved his foot over Morgan's head and enveloped his entire leg with lava.

"Magu Magu no Double Tap" Apparently this was a move common enough to necessitate its own name.

He then obliterated Morgan's upper body, now satisfied he had killed him for good.

All the while Helmoppo sobbed uncontrollably, a pathetic mewling gasp was the only sound he could make as he witnessed this atrocious display.

Coby felt only sick.

If Coby had just been a bit more forceful in his defiance, this was what would have happened to him.

All he could feel was fear and regret.

He shouldn't have helped him back in Goat Island.

* * *

 **-10 minutes earlier-**

"What is this?" Sakazuki mildly said in response to the strange sight before him.

Almost every denizen of Shells Town were blocked his way, rows of townspeople and some remaining marines were brandishing various implements and improvised weapons with the seeming intention of stopping him.

A recovered Zoro was beside him, as well as a traumatized Coby and Helmoppo.

"T-This is our home monster!" A gruff elderly man said, holding in his hand a very worn looking shovel.

Zoro's eyes widened as he noticed a terrified Rika among this rabble, the little girl who gave him the rice ball was holding onto a rolling pin.

"You've killed too many of our people!" A marine said next.

Sakazuki didn't seem like he had the patience to entertain them.

He immediately cocked back his fist, his entire left arm turning into an irregular mass of magma ready to bulldoze through this foolish gaggle of scared townspeople and cowardly marines.

He stopped as he noticed Zoro standing in between them. His eyes burning with a stone old intensity.

His once tired posture replaced by iron resoluteness.

* * *

 **-Now-**

"Already you're defying me?" Sakazuki said dangerously as magma flowed from his hands.

Zoro did not hesitate, even after seeing what just happened he couldn't let this become bloodier than it was.

"I never said I was joining your crew." He responded resolutely, unlike those behind him he said those words with no hint of fear.

"So you reject my offer than?" He started enveloping both arms in masses of magma, not at all pleased by this defiance.

"These people cannot hope to defeat you, what's the point of killing them?" Zoro didn't care much for the deaths of marines, death was a consequence of their duty; but innocent civilians? He couldn't imagine letting such deaths pass.

"They impede my path." Sakazuki wasn't in the mood for conversation, very soon he was going to bloodily murder them all.

"Fine." Zoro turned his back towards Sakazuki, facing the crowd.

"IF ANY SHITTY BASTARD HERE DOES'NT WANT TO DIE THAN THEY SHOULD STEP ASIDE! THOSE WHO REMAIN I'LL CUT DOWN MYSELF!" Zoro's sudden declaration surprised everyone present, Sakazuki included.

It started first with the marines, these men had enough dying for the day. Seeing as how the seasoned men stood down, it was almost instantaneous when the rest of the town's people steeped aside.

"Satisfied?" Zoro didn't even bother turning to face Sakazuki.

All Sakazuki responded with was a slight nod of approval.

He had truly found a worthy first mate.

* * *

"He's finally gone." A grizzled middle marine said with a sigh of relief.

They had left in a small fishing boat provided by one of the fishermen.

Coby had been abandoned by them, Sakazuki did not even acknowledge his existence.

"Did you know him?"The marine then turned towards the pinkette. The boy's traumatized expression was the answer he needed.

"The world isn't safe with him roaming the seas." Coby stated numbly, still harrowed from the experience of journeying with Sakazuki.

"He's a monster. It's a miracle we're mostly all alive." The marine nodded in agreement with Coby's words.

"Someone needs to stop him." Coby said with surprising determination.

The marine turned towards him, noticing the burning desire in his eyes.

"Do you want to join the marines?" He simply asked.

Cobby dwelt on his question for some time.

He was terrified, he had seen what Sakazuki had done. The evil he had inflicted.

It scared him, but it also inspired him in a way.

Coby turned towards the marine, bowing his head until it reached the floor.

"PLEASE ALLOW ME TO JOIN THE MARINES!" The elder marine was a bit taken back by the gesture.

"IT IS MY FAULT HE CAME HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Coby said through guilty tears.

"I MUST ATONE AND SALVAGE MY HONOR!" He begged.

The marine just looked at him, a bit ashamed by how much courage the boy had in wanting to hunt down the man who almost destroyed their town.

He didn't care if he brought him here, with men like Sakazuki roaming the world, it's bravery like Coby's that is needed to stop such beasts.


End file.
